Autopsy today for elderly man beaten with baseball bat in April

Donald Henry, 56, was originally charged with aggravated battery for an April 21 attack on an elderly man with a baseball bat, authorities said.

Donald Henry, 56, was originally charged with aggravated battery for an April 21 attack on an elderly man with a baseball bat, authorities said. (Cook County Sheriff's Department)

Staff report

A long-delayed autopsy is scheduled for Thursday for an elderly man who was attacked with a baseball bat earlier this year and died at a nursing home late last month, authorities said.

Chicago police said that a man wielding a wooden baseball bat struck Ellison Jordan, Jr., 86, in the head during a quarrel on April 21 in the 1900 block of South Homan Avenue in the Lawndale neighborhood.

The alleged attacker, Donald Henry, 56, was arrested and later charged with multiple counts of aggravated battery while a critically-injured Jordan was treated at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to police and court records.

Jordan, who lived in a nursing home in the 2400 block of West Touhy Avenue in West Rogers Park, died at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston on Sept. 22, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

A medical examiner's office spokesman said there was a delay in receiving the body. People who suffer traumatic deaths or who suffered previous traumas that could have caused their death are usually brought to the Stein Institute, the county morgue, for autopsy within a day of their death.

The reason for the delay was unclear.

Henry remains at Cook County Jail after a judge set bail at $350,000 for him on April 23, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. His is scheduled to appear in court again on Nov. 7.

If the autopsy determines that Jordan's death was caused by the April attack, authorities would seek to upgrade to murder charges, said Chicago police Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti, a police spokeswoman.